Medicine Alumna of the Year: Adele Marie O'Sullivan

Leading up to the UA's 100th Homecoming, we are highlighting UA alumni who are being honored by their colleges with alumni of the year awards.

Her religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph, led Adele Marie O'Sullivan to the UA to study toward becoming a "sister doctor" with a career focused on caring for the poor and homeless.

In 1996, O'Sullivan found that there was no place for respite care for the homeless once they were released from a hospital. She had just become medical director of Maricopa County’s Health Care for the Homeless clinic in downtown Phoenix.

O'Sullivan began to rally support from St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center and Hospice of the Valley. She also petitioned support from the Arizona Diamondbacks and Arizona Cardinals. She reached out to numerous other faith, philanthropic and business organizations, eventually opening Circle the City, a 50-bed medical respite center. The center opened in 2012, and O'Sullivan now serves as medical director and president for the nonprofit, which also provides job counseling and other support. Today, 70 percent of its patients leave for permanent housing and employment.

O’Sullivan will receive the UA College of Medicine's Alumna of the Year award.